World of Threads Festival 2026-27

Local, National & International Contemporary Fibre & Textile Art

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 26, 2026, 1 – 3pm
Queen Elizabeth Park Community & Cultural Centre, Oakville

Water Stories is our main festival exhibition. Curated by Gareth Bate and Dawne Rudman. Featuring 42 artists.

Festival 2026-27 features over 900 artworks by 192 artists from 22 countries

The World of Threads Festival is a leading international showcase of contemporary fibre and textile art. We are a not-for-profit initiative with charitable status. The festival is organized and curated by mother and son team, dedicated volunteer Dawne Rudman, and Gareth Bate. We have a team of dedicated volunteers. Festival 2023-24 attracted over 80,000 visitors.
Some of the most exciting and compelling artworks being made today are happening in the field of fibre and textile arts. In our current age where tech companies would like to replace artists with automated AI generated imagery, making art using fibre and textile methods becomes a radical gesture. It’s an affirmation of human making and human creativity.

Festival Dates: Wednesday, September 23, 2026 – Sunday, January 17, 2027
Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10pm – 5pm | Sunday, 12 – 4pm

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 26, 2026, 1 – 3pm
Book a seat on the Art Bus Tour from Toronto to Oakville for the opening reception. Book your seat here.

Admission: Free | Parking: Free

Queen Elizabeth Park Community & Cultural Centre
2302 Bridge Road
Oakville, ON L6L 2G6, Canada
Venue is fully accessible

Artists come from 22 countries:
We are open to individual artists from every country. Festival artists do not represent nation states, but rather they are in solidarity as artists of the world. Artists come from: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Columbia, Curaçao, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

Festival Website: worldofthreadsfestival.com
Check out our website for all past exhibitions and artworks, current exhibition info, directions, art bus tour and maps. You can also download our festival brochure.

Solo Shows features 41 artists. Curated by Gareth Bate and Dawne Rudman.

Water Stories

Water Stories is our major festival exhibition. It explores humanity’s many relationships to water. Different perspectives include ecological, political, spiritual, cultural, economic and recreational. Artists in this show depict lakes, rivers, oceans, beaches, coasts, wetlands, waterfalls, rainfall and even underground rivers. Some depict vast ecosystems brimming with life such as kelp forests and coral reefs. There are elegies to habitat loss and calls for the return of lost salmon. Some artists see their art as a form of environmental activism. They’re determined to fight back. Many artists are concerned with sustainability in their practice and incorporate natural, repurposed or vintage materials. Several in this show explore nature’s regeneration or resurrection.

Across Time: Heritage and Tradition

For this exhibition we’ve brought together ten artists from seven countries for a global conversation about cultural heritage, tradition and memory. They explore artistic knowledge passed down from generation to generation. Some artists learn from, or reconnect with, traditional techniques inherited from ancestors. They transform these methods through contemporary approaches. Others draw on personal family stories and lore. In some works, vintage textiles carry legacy through material form, holding memory in the objects themselves. Together, the artists reveal a vast global lineage of creative knowledge in conversation across time.

Solo Shows

Solo Shows presents outstanding bodies of work by 41 artists. They are presented throughout the building.

Installations

Throughout the building you’ll find 21 installations and large wall-works.

War and Displacement

In this small group exhibition, we bring together eight artists from three countries whose work responds to one of the defining conditions of the world today: war and displacement. Hardly a day goes by without news of bombings, drone attacks, missile strikes, slaughter, and destruction. Entire cities are wiped from existence. Horrific images and videos of war in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa appear on news channels and social media. These artists attempt to convey some of the consequences of these actions. Imagery in this show includes bandages, blood, wounds, ruined buildings, childhood imagery, and weapons of war, such as tanks, bombs, helicopters, and drones. Themes include violence, genocide, erasure, mourning, victims, oppressors, land, and the remarkable endurance of peoples, communities, and cultures.

Nature Reclaimed

For this small group exhibition, we’ve brought together twelve artists whose work reflects a deep spiritual connection to nature. Natural processes become active collaborators in their artistic visions. Some artists use found materials foraged from different environments; others reclaim used textiles, transforming them into forms that evoke the natural world. Working with muted colours and rich earth tones, the artists embrace materials and surfaces that may be dirty, stained, or rough, yet are often beautiful, light, and elegant. The imagery and materials include roots, bark, logs, fungi, lichen, moss, soil, reeds, flowers, leaves, and raw wool.

In The Round

For this small group show we’ve brought together eight artists who have all created circular artworks. A circle can stand for oneness, wholeness, unity, perfection, infinity, or even the cosmos. A continuous line has no beginning or end. It can represent an unbroken bond, inclusivity and community. It can also represent the endless loop of life: birth, growth and death. In ancient cultures the circle was used to represent the sun, moon and sacred boundaries. Works in this show evoke the earth, planets, sun, tree rings, bubbles and cells as well as the circle as an abstract metaphor.

Cat Walk IV

This is our fourth group exhibition focused on fashion, wearable-art, clothing and accessories. Clothing has always provided the most clearly recognized use for fibre and textiles. These 23 artists take it to a whole new level.